JAGUAR Land Rover (JLR) has made its first quarterly profit, after tax, since it was bought by Indian conglomerate Tata in June 2008.

The luxury car maker achieved a £55m surplus in the three months to last December, Tata Motors has revealed.

That compares with a post-tax loss of £60m in the previous July to September quarter.

This latest period includes production of the last Jaguar X-Type model and the popular Land Rover Freelander at Knowsley’s Halewood car plant.

The car maker has been hit by a sales slump due to the credit crunch and has had to axe 2,000 jobs from its total workforce of 16,000, including temporary and agency roles at Halewood.

Cost cuts included the early termination of the plant’s Jaguar X-Type model. Staff there now just produce the Freelander, but are gearing up for the launch next year of the ‘baby’ Range Rover LRX model which will be the most environmentally-friendly car made by the company.

Tata Motors chief financial officer Mr C Ramakrishnan described the turnround in the company’s financial fortunes as “very significant” and said it could contribute to a good financial year for the group as a whole: “This has potentially improved our year long performance.”

In a global conference call with analysts and journalists he also said it was unlikely JLR’s headcount would fall much further than its current 14,000 level.

In fact, Halewood is seeking to add 800 new jobs for the LRX launch.

The latest figures show JLR saw an 18% jump in showroom sales, with strong growth in the US, Russia, China and Europe.

During the most recent quarter Mr Ramakrishnan revealed that Halewood produced 2,500 Jaguar X-Type models and built 8,000 over the nine month period.

He said: “The Chinese market is a very good market for Jaguar volumes. We have benefited from globalisation of the market.

And he forecast more potential benefits for the company in the future, as the cost cuts and a reduction in overheads start to take effect, although he added: “they will take some time to flow to the bottom line”.

He said: “We believe we can improve. We went through a very challenging year and a half but JLR will spend £350m-£400m on research and development and technology over the next couple of years.”

He also revealed that sales have benefited from quality improvements in Jaguar models shown by recognised industry organisation JD Power.

“Jaguar cars have been topping the JD Power charts in terms of quality.”